New Video and Eyewitness to Alleged Occupy Beating

I hate to focus too much on the plight of the one person who wound up in the hospital among the 5,000 protesters who turned out for Occupy Portland on Saturday and Sunday BUT there's a couple new pieces of news about Justin James Bridges, who says the police beat him with a baton.

First off, the police have released an extended video of the encounter. From watching the video, it's still unclear exactly what happened—it's no incriminating Rodney King style vid with obvious brutality. But the officers are handling Bridges pretty roughly and his screams come through loud and clear.

Second, an eyewitness named Justin Kerston was standing next to Bridges at the protest. He typed up his whole account and emailed it out to media, via the Occupy Portland media team. It backs up Bridges' version of events right to the point where he disappears behind police lines. Kerston also says that paramedics would initially not treat Bridges without a police order for what to do. Here's his whole story as a PDF, give it a read.